Biospeleological activities in Central Europe – a status report

Subterranean Biology 22: 59-65 (2017)

doi: 10.3897/subtbiol.22. 13297 FORUM PAPER < QUOTErrancan

‘ O Published by
http://subtbiol. pensoft.net gy The Inernatonal Society
for Subterranean Biology

Biospeleological activities in Central Europe -
a status report

Dieter Weber!

| Evolutionary Biology & Ecology, CP 160/12, Université libre de Bruxelles, Avenue ED. Roosevelt 50, B-1050
Brussels, Belgium 2. Kirchgasse 124, D-67454 Hassloch, Germany

Corresponding author: Dieter Weber (dieter.weber124@gmx.de)

Academic editor: O. Moldovan | Received 19 April 2016 | Accepted 6 June 2017 | Published 18 July 2017
Attp://zoobank.org/6 DBDBC9D-8 BC0-443E-A4BD- 1 1BBB852E3E9

Citation: Weber D (2017) Biospeleological activities in Central Europe — a status report. Subterranean Biology 22:
59-65. https://doi.org/10.3897/subtbiol.22.13297

Abstract

Catalogues of cave fauna from Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Germany (Swabian Alb, Franconian Alb,
Westfalia, Hesse, Harz, Rhenish Palatinate and Saarland), and Luxembourg are available. Several activities
deal with public relations, education, and training: the cave animal of the year, a camp for young cavers,
the day nature, and the biospeleological workgroup. The German Barcoding of Life is a project which
aims to obtain CO1 barcodes from every species in Germany with a sub-project on cave fauna. Special
projects deal with Bythiospeum, niphargids, diplurans, sphaerocerids, and the biodiversity and ecology of

cave invertebrates in the Central European Uplands.

Zusammenfassung

Es gibt Héhlenfaunenkataloge von Belgien, der Schweiz, Osterreich, Deutschland (Schwabische Alb,
Frankische Alb, Westfalen, Hessen, Harz und Rheinland-Pfalz/Saarland) und Luxemburg. Verschiedene
Aktivitaiten befassen sich mit Offentlichkeitsarbeit und Schulungen; Das Héhlentier des Jahres, ein Trai-
ningslager fiir junge Hohlenforscher, der Tag der Natur und eine biospelaologische Arbeitsgruppe. Das
Projekt German Barcoding of Life“ versucht CO1-Barcodes aller deutschen Arten zu erstellen. Es hat
ein Unterprojekt zur Héhlenfauna. Tiergruppenspezifische Projekte behandeln Bythiospeum, Niphargen,
Dipluren, Sphaeroceriden und Biodiversitit und Okologie von Héhlenevertebraten der zentraleuropai-

schen Mittelgebirge.

Keywords
Biodiversity assessment reports, public relations, education, Bythiospeum, Niphargidae, Diplura, Sphaero-

ceridae

Copyright Dieter Weber. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

60 Dieter Weber / Subterranean Biology 22: 59-65 (2017)

Introduction

This text gives an overview of important past and recent biospeleological activities
in “Central Europe”. The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland
and Austria belong to “Central Europe” in this context. The area is therefore not iden-
tical to the geographic definition of Central Europe. Activities on bats are not included
in this paper.

Biodiversity assessment of cave fauna

In many karstic and non karstic areas in Central Europe summarizing biodiversity as-
sessment reports have been published: Belgium (Leruth 1939 with 600 species), Swit-
zerland (Strinati 1965 with 513 species), Austria (Strouhal and Vornatscher 1975),
Swabian Alb (Dobat 1975 with 289 species), Franconian Alb (Dobat 1978 with 491
species), Westfalia (Weber 1991 with 1084 species), Hesse (Zaenker 2001 with 3259
species, ongoing), Harz (Hartmann 2004 with 224 species), Luxembourg (Weber
2013 with 390 species online available [https://www.mnhn.lu/science/2013/03/15/
ferrantia-69/], ongoing), Rhenish Palatinate and Saarland (Weber 1988, 1989, 1995,
2001, 2012 with 2600 species, ongoing).

In addition, many smaller publications on the cave fauna of other areas, dealing
mostly with one specific animal group, are available and contain additional information.

The assessment of the cave fauna and its documentation in Central Europe is
therefore comprehensive, although in some areas it is unfortunately not up to date.

Public relations, education, and trainings

Cave animal of the year

The idea of a cave animal of the year arose during the yearly conference of the Society
of German Cave and Karst explorers in 2008. It has the following aims: inform the
public that caves are sensitive and fragile biotopes, raise the importance of caves to
authorities and NGOs, cave fauna and their protection, motivate cavers working on
biospeleology, and protection of subterranean ecosystems.

Sinces then, one species has been selected every year as “Cave Animal of the Year,”
to indicate the importance of caves not only to their permanent inhabitants but also
to hibernating species. Eutroglobiontic, eutroglophilie and subtroglophile species have
alternated.

Every year, posters and flyers are printed. A presentation on the cave animal of the
year and an internet homepage (http://www.hoehlentier.de/) are available. The home-
page contains information on the species, photos and a press release.

Biospeleological activities in Central Europe — a status report 61

HUHLENTIER DES JAHRES 2009

Daa Hotbars dea Jahre Dita AUR Dicer. MCR Crit Chie Jaaniriees-*
Hetero

Uniterirdiache (haa atene

Ds epee Dear lear

Hercuree esa re

Preseemitheang

Literatur

Links

Impey Burr

E-Wad i Wipefet see tobesr ime hey

Figure |. Homepage of the cave animal of the year.

Table |. Cave animals of the year from 2009 until 2017.

2009 Niphargus sp.

2010 Scoliopteryx libatrix
2011 Myotis myotis

2012 Meta menardi

2013 Speolepta leptogaster
2014 Proasellus cavaticus
2015 Oxychilus cellarius
2016 Amilenus aurantiacus
2017 Diphyus quadripunctorius

JuH6FoLa — Camp for young cavers

The “JuH6FoLa” (http://www.juhoefola.de/) is a training camp for young cavers
with participants from all over Europe. It is held in Germany and is conducted in
English. It consists of two weeks training with three days on biospeleology. The
biospeleological part consists of short collecting trips to caves and springs in the
morning, sorting/determination of the collected specimes and a theoretical session
in the afternoon.

The next JuH6FoLa is planned for summer 2018.

62 Dieter Weber / Subterranean Biology 22: 59-65 (2017)

Figure 2. Determination of cave animals in the “lab” during the JuH6FoLa (Photo: Otto Schwabe).

Day of nature

The day of nature (previously: day of biodiversity; http://www.geo.de/natur/tag-der-
artenvielfalt/9274-rtkl-das-projekt-geo-tag-der-artenvielfalt-2016) is sponsored by the
journal GEO and the KfW foundation. It aims to identify as many species as possible
in one day and is held once a year in alternating regions.

For the last 5 years, biospeleologists have been offering collecting trips to caves,
mines or springs and have published the results (Blick et al. 2014; Fritze et al. 2014).

Biospeleological workgroup

The biospeleological workgroup, created in 2016 at Eurospeleo in the Yorkshire Dales,
is an e-mail information exchange system for all biospeleologists. As of the end of
2016, it had 36 participants. E-mails can be sent by every participant on all biospeleo-
logical topics anytime.

All biospeleologists are invited to join (hannes@bigwalls.de)!

DNA barcoding

“The GBOL = German Barcoding of Life” (https://www.bolgermany.de/) is a project

in cooperation with several German museums and institutes, with the target to obtain

Biospeleological activities in Central Europe — a status report 63

CO1 barcodes from 10 specimens of every species that has been found in Germany
(the barcodes need not be from specimens collected in Germany).

A special sub-project under the head of Alexander Weigand, University of Duis-
burg-Essen (WeigandA@gmx.net) deals with cave fauna. As of December 2016, 381

cavernicolous species and several thousand specimens have been barcoded.

Topics on special animal groups

Bythiospeum

A project at the Staatliches Museum ftir Naturkunde Stuttgart deals with the caverni-
colous snail genus Bythiospeum, with the aim to learn about the phylogentics, biogeo-
graphy and diversity of this genus in Europe. First results have been published (Richling
et al. 2016). Ira Richling is in charge (ira.richling@smns-bw.de).

Niphargids

A project at the Université libre de Bruxelles, under the head of Jean-Francois Flot,
to resolve various questions on the cavernicolous shrimp family Niphargidae started
in 2016. It aims to compare the phylogeny and taxonomy of the niphargids, estimate
species richness, find cryptic species, identify distributional patterns delineation and
to analyze the effects of the last Quaternary glaciation on both species richness and
distribution. Central Europe, where specimens are still needed from the constituent
countries is managed by Dieter Weber (dieter.weber124@gmx.de).

Diplura

The target of the Diplura project, a cooperation of several universities and museums, is
to compile a catalogue of all cave diplurans in Central Europe, including their phylo-
genetic description. Alberto Sendra (Alberto.Sendra@uv.es) is in charge.

Sphaeroceridae

After knowledge was gained of the cave dwelling fly family Sphaeroceridae in certain
regions (Rhenish Palatinate and Saarland, Bahrmann and Weber, 2008; Luxembourg,
Bahrmann and Weber 2013), the intention of this project is to improve the knowledge
of sphaerocerids in caves within the missing regions. Point of contact is Dieter Weber

(dieter.weber124@gmx.de).

64 Dieter Weber / Subterranean Biology 22: 59-65 (2017)

Biodiversity and ecology of cave invertebrates in the Central European Uplands

A comprehensive project in cooperation with the University of Duisburg-Essen and
the National Museum of Natural History Luxembourg deals with the biodiversity and
ecology of selected species of cave invertebrates in the Central European Uplands.
One target is to compare subtroglophile species (Limonia nubeculosa, Scoliopteryx liba-
trix, Triphosa dubitata) with eutroglophile species (Meta menardi, Metellina merianae,
Gammarus pulex, Discus rotundatus, Oxychilus draparnaudi, Speolepta leptogaster), and
eutroglobiontic species (Niphargus schellenbergi, Porrhomma convexum, Trichoniscoides

helveticus). Alexander Weigand (WeigandA@gmx.net) is in charge of this project.

Acknowledgements

I thank Jean-Francois Flot and Lee Knight for the revision of the English.

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